Twenty-five Colorado breweries earned 27 medals and awards at the 40th anniversary Great American Beer Festival, which concluded Saturday night at the Colorado Convention Center. The festival drew an estimated 40,000 for four sessions, starting Thursday. 

Left Hand Brewery of Longmont took home the prestigious Brewery and Brewer of the Year award and two medals for its St. Vrain Belgian Ale and its Milk Stout.

The 29-year brewery got close a couple of years before, but has never taken the top award for Brewery and Brewer of the year, said Co-Founder and President Eric Wallace from Left Hand Sunday.

“Our feet were barely touching the ground yesterday,” Wallace said, still grinning widely Sunday. “It’s awesome. Just really, really awesome.”

“That’s the big daddy and we had zero expectations of winning it.”

Left Hand has won more GABF medals than any other Colorado-based brewery, according to Brewers Association records. Its Milk Stout now has seven GABF awards, and many more from The World Beer Cup and other international competitions. 

“It’s such an intense competition,” Wallace said. “It’s hard to medal consistently. The fact that we’ve got beers that have meddled over-and-over speaks well because anyone who is pulling that off must have their act fairly together.” 

Wallace thanked Head Brewer Gary Glass, who is the former director of the American Brewers Association. 

“Getting to see Gary on stage was just really cool,” he said. 

Cannonball Canyon Brewing Company of Golden also won a medal for the 10th straight year, snagging bronze for its Rosemary Sourdough Saison.

The Great American Beer Festival is a competition, but it can also be a springboard for new breweries, as Ann Obenchain, marketing and communications director at the Brewers Association, explains.

“I think it can really help establish them. It can help put them on the map,” she said in an earlier interview with the Denver Gazette. “If you’re just getting started and you win a gold medal one year at the festival, it can really open a lot of doors.”

Colorado Breweries winning medals include: Dry Dock Brewing of Aurora; Rock Cut Brewing of Estes Park; Bristol Brewing Company of Colorado Springs and the Jessup Farm Barrel House of Fort Collins.

The Post of Lafayette won gold for their El Corn International Dark Lager. During the last GABF in 2019, The Post took home a silver medal in the same category.

Over 2,000 breweries submitted almost 10,000 different beers to the competition. More than 200 judges have been working on the entries since May, Obenchain said. The American-style pale ale dominated with number of entries, 423.

There were 301 first-time entrants and 18 first-time winners, according to the Brewers Association.

More than 500 breweries participated in the festival, bringing more than 2,000 for attendees to sample. It was the first festival since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For a full list of winners visit greatamericanbeerfestival.com.